The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for receiving data packets in a digital broadcasting system, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for grooming transport stream packets in a digital video broadcasting (DVB) system.
The MPEG (Motion Pictures Expert Group) standard focuses on the encoding and transport of video and audio data. In general, the MPEG standard uses compression algorithms to reduce the number of bytes to be transmitted and/or stored without noticeably affecting the quality of the original video and audio content.
The International Organization for Standardization (referred to as the ISO/IEC hereinafter) has developed the MPEG-2 standard for the coding of moving pictures and associated audio. The MPEG-2 standard is set forth in four documents. The document ISO/IEC 13818-1 (systems) specifies the system coding of the specification. It defines a multiplexed structure for combining video and audio data and includes timing information necessary to synchronously replay sequences of the video and associated audio. The document ISO/IEC 13818-2 (video) specifies the coded representation of video data and the decoding process required to reconstruct the pictures. The document ISO/IEC 13818-3 (audio) specifies the coded representation of audio data and the decoding process required to reconstruct the sound. And document ISO/IEC 13818-4 (conformance) specifies procedures for determining the characteristics of coded streams and for testing compliance with the requirements set forth in the documents ISO/IEC 13818-1, 13818-2, and 13818-3.
The MPEG-2 standard provides a packet based encoding and transport of multimedia data, wherein video, audio, other data are multiplexed into a bit stream. The bit stream is then segmented into a packetized elementary stream (PES), and then respective packets are multiplexed into either of two distinct streams: a transport stream (TS) or a program stream (PS). A transport stream consists of packets of fixed length (188 bytes) whereas a program stream comprises a multiplex of variable length PES packets. Transport stream is used in the digital video broadcasting (DVB) system whereas program stream is used in error free environments, such as recording programs on digital versatile disc (DVD). The PES is a data structure used to carry elementary stream data. An elementary stream (ES) is either one of coded video, coded audio, or other coded data streams carried in a sequence of PES packets with only one packet identifier (PID).
Transport Stream (TS) packets are used in video broadcasting, where the transmission channel is noisy and facing multiple impairments such as multipath fading, group delay variation, Doppler effect due to a receiver moving in relation to a broadcast station, carrier frequency offset caused by local oscillator drift, carrier phase noise, carrier amplitude imbalance, channel bandwidth aberrations caused by unintentionally filtering, etc.
In contrast to other DVB transmission systems, which are based on the DVB Transport Stream (TS) adopted from the MPEG-2 standard, the DVB-H is the specification for broadcasting services to handheld receivers, and was formally adopted as an ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) standard in November 2004. More specifically, DVB-H is a terrestrial digital TV standard that mandates power savings and allows receivers to move freely while receiving services. DVB-H is based on the Internet Protocol (IP). In consequence, the DVB-H baseband interface is an IP interface format. This interface allows the DVB-H system to be combined with other IP-based networks. This combination is one feature of the IP datacast system. The MPEG-2 TS is still used by the link data layer. Encoded multimedia data are mapped into variable length IP packets called IP datagrams. The IP datagrams are encapsulated into the transport stream by means of the multi-protocol encapsulation (MPE), an adaptation protocol defined in the DVB Data Broadcast Specification ETSI EN 301192.
On the level of the MPE, an additional stage of forward error correction (FEC) is added. This technique, called MPE-FEC, is one of the main innovation of DVB-H. MPE-FEC complements the physical layer FEC of the underlying DVB-T standard. It is intended to lower the signal-to-noise (SNR) requirements for reception by a hand-held device.
The MPE-FEC processing is located on the link layer at the level of the IP input streams before they are encapsulated by means of the MPE. FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a DVB-H transmitter including the DVB-H codec that comprises the MPE-FEC, the MPE, and a time slicing technique. The time-slicing technique is a power saving feature of the DVB-H system that assigns transmitted programs in time slices, hence, allows a receiver to be active only at the period of interest to receive a burst of data and then powered down for the rest of power-save period. The IP input streams provided by different sources as individual elementary streams are multiplexed according to the time slicing method. The output of a single MPEG audio or video coder is called an Elementary Stream (ES). The MPE-FEC error protection is calculated separately for each individual elementary stream.
IP diagrams are encapsulated into MPE sections. MPE sections are further protected with a forward error correcting (FEC) code. A Reed-Solomon code RS (255, 191, 64) code is used for data reliability enhancement and forms the FEC sections. The IP input streams provided by different sources as individual elementary streams (ES) are multiplexed according to the time slicing method. Video programs are encoded into MPEG-2 formats, the encoded data are then packetized and multiplexed with the MPE-FEC sections to form transport stream (TS) packets. The DVB-T coder 101 comprises a 4K modulator and transmitter parameter signaling (TPS) information indicating that the DVB-H transmission is compatible with the DVB-T standard in the physical layer. FIG. 1B shows a prior art block diagram of a DVB-H receiver. The receiver 120 includes DVB-H demodulator 122 that recovers the MPEG-2 transport stream (TS) packets. TS packets 124 are then applied to DVB-H IP-decapsulator 130 that includes time slicing module 134. Timing slicing module 134 controls the receiver to decode the wanted service and shut off during the other services. It aims to reduce receiver power consumption. MPE-FEC module 136 offers a complementary FEC function that allows the receiver 120 to cope with particular difficult reception situations.
A transport stream packet can carry many different programs and each may use a different compression factor and a bit rate that can change dynamically though the overall bit rate stays constant (statistical multiplexing).
As the DVB-H standard is specified for digital video broadcasting for mobile and hand-held receiver devices that sometimes may not have good reception due to the small size of antennas and due to their moving speed relative to the broadcast station, motivation is high to provide a method and apparatus for improving the quality of demodulated data packets.